The most common reason given for parting ways with salespeople is the failure to meet sales targets. This is where it all begins. If results aren’t delivered month after month or quarter after quarter, managers are forced to react.

And here’s the key point: a manager’s role is not just to enforce consequences, but above all to identify where the problem lies and how to fix it. Firing someone should always be the last resort, because it comes at a cost – both financial and organizational. Recruitment, onboarding, and the team’s time invested in training are all resources wasted when someone is let go.

A competent manager should dig deeper: diagnose the real cause instead of stopping at the label “they didn’t hit target.”

In many companies, the pattern looks like this: every few months, people are replaced because they “didn’t deliver results.” New people come in, and the cycle repeats. Why? Because sales isn’t structured: there’s no clear process, no order to activities, no strategy. It’s much easier to say, “you didn’t meet your goals” than to show precisely where the process is broken and what needs to be fixed.

Managers have the duty to intervene earlier: to talk, set clear expectations, discuss a recovery plan, and provide guidance. It shouldn’t come to the point where one day the message is simply, “you didn’t hit your targets, so you’re fired.” There should first be conversations, a plan, and concrete steps – and only then, if nothing changes, separation.

Of course, sometimes feedback is given, but the salesperson doesn’t accept it, doesn’t adjust, and simply “doesn’t care.” In such cases, sooner or later, the collaboration does have to end. But a missed target alone, without proper managerial work beforehand, is not enough to close the matter.

More and more often, we see the attitude: “that’s marketing’s job.” For some salespeople, sales is reduced to the idea that someone else “delivers ready-made leads,” and all they need to do is sit down, have a coffee, chat with the client – and the “rest just happens.” If that were true, sales would be nothing more than answering the phone and sending out offers. That kind of work would be easy to automate, and we’d all live in an ideal world.

But that’s not the reality. Especially in complex sales, a salesperson cannot afford to just wait. Hunting means going out to the market, initiating contact, and working systematically on new opportunities. The mindset of “I’ll sit and wait until the company delivers valuable leads to me” simply doesn’t work. Without this skill, the pipeline shrinks – and with it, the chances of hitting targets.

The opposite extreme: opportunities enter the pipeline… and then disappear from the radar. What’s missing is execution – consistent, ongoing work with the client. In sales processes that stretch over months, a salesperson needs a clear gameplay: an action plan, a rhythm of contact, and control over each step leading up to the decision.

The company can provide support – marketing automation, nurturing content, or content hubs that keep prospects engaged over time. But the responsibility for building and driving the project rests with the salesperson. It’s their job to manage things so that one day the deal actually closes – as quickly and effectively as possible.

Without this skill, the familiar scenario unfolds: the opportunity sinks to the bottom of the pipeline and dies. The key isn’t just in generating chances, but in having the ability to see them through to the end. If someone can’t do that – they simply don’t sell.

On the other side of “hunting” lies farming — taking care of the clients we already work with and growing the relationship. It’s about going beyond winning the contract to actually working the account: maintaining contact, understanding needs, looking for areas where we can help further, and gradually expanding the scope. This isn’t a “nice-to-have.” In many sales models, it’s the key to sustaining revenue.

Farming requires a different mindset than hunting. Here, what matters is consistency, patience, and the willingness to work “in the background” — not only when the client reaches out. It also requires navigating the client’s organization: engaging both decision-makers and end users, and understanding which departments and processes are involved. All of this turns a one-time purchase into a long-term collaboration.

The lack of farming leads to the same outcome: a deal gets “done,” communication goes quiet, no new ideas are brought to the table, no initiative is shown — and over time, the client either disappears or scales back orders. As a result, the company loses not only the potential to grow the account but often also the value it had already built.

In many industries, sales means project-based sales — processes last for months, and after signing the contract there comes a lot of paperwork and the moment of handing over responsibility to delivery (implementation, execution). And this is exactly where problems begin if project care is neglected.

It’s about very concrete things: properly passing on documentation and arrangements to the delivery team, keeping track of deadlines, ensuring NDAs and information security, making sure that everything agreed upon in sales is reflected in delivery activities. A single poorly managed project can cost the company hundreds of thousands, or even millions: delays, mistakes in documents, breaches — these are real risks.

That’s why sales must put strong emphasis on this stage. It’s not about the salesperson “doing” the implementation, but about not disappearing after the signature: being the connector, ensuring proper handover, participating in key arrangements, and keeping a finger on the pulse. In projects, there really is a lot of paperwork — and if the sales team treats it carelessly, the cost will come sooner or later.

Another cause is consciously failing to follow processes, often under the slogan “I have my own way.” Sometimes someone with many years of experience joins a company and says outright: “I won’t work in the CRM, I’ve always done things my own way.” Or, “I won’t do those reports,” “I won’t cooperate with marketing.” All of this undermines the system.

In modern organizations, CRM is the single source of truth. If part of the team doesn’t report, doesn’t fill in fields, doesn’t follow agreed stages — it blows up the ability to plan, forecast, and account for work properly. The process exists so that everyone is playing toward the same goal: sales, marketing, presales, delivery. If someone refuses to follow it, they’re not just working against the “system,” but against their colleagues.

Obstruction isn’t limited to CRM. It also means publicly undermining the work of other departments, ignoring established workflows, skipping steps under the pretext of “saving time.” The result is always the same: the quality of the whole team’s work declines, tensions rise — and this can truly be a reason for parting ways.

This point is obvious: unethical behavior. It covers a wide range — from actions that break the law to those that violate loyalty to the employer. “Making money on the side,” collaborating with the competition, acting to the detriment of the company — these are situations where there is no room for half-measures.